Barcelona squad named for La Liga match against Las Palmas

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana travel to Las Palmas for an important La Liga game for the leaders, and Ernesto Valverde has called up 18 players to be in uniform on Thursday night.

This is the full squad:

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Jasper Cillessen

Defenders: 3. Gerard Piqué, 19. Lucas Digne, 20. Sergi Roberto, 23. Samuel Umtiti, 25. Thomas Vermaelen

Midfielders: 4. Ivan Rakitic, 5. Sergio Busquets, 8. Andrés Iniesta, 14. Philippe Coutinho, 15. Paulinho Bezerra, 21. André Gomes, 22. Aleix Vidal

Forwards: 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 11. Ousmane Dembélé, 17. Paco Alcácer

Valverde has two problems for this match: Nélson Semedo is injured and Jordi Alba is suspended, which means that the two best full-backs in the squad will not be available. There is good news with the return of Paco Alcácer, who will probably start in place of Luis Suárez, who’s just one booking away from suspension and could miss the weekend’s giant clash with Atlético Madrid. Yerry Mina and Denis Suarez are not in the squad per the manager’s choice.

Predicted starting XI (4-4-2):

Ter Stegen; Roberto, Umtiti, Vermaelen, Digne; Coutinho, Paulinho, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Alcácer

The match kicks off at 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm EST, 12pm PST (USA), 1.30am IST (India, next day), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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